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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26066122">Loved Ones and Leaving and New Beginnings</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/White_Squirrel/pseuds/White_Squirrel'>White_Squirrel</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Ending, F/M, Missing Scene, Order of the Phoenix (Harry Potter), movie-verse</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 12:02:10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,700</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26066122</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/White_Squirrel/pseuds/White_Squirrel</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Movie-Verse. One-shot. In the aftermath of the Department of Mysteries, Harry reconciles with Cho after learning she was dosed with Veritaserum to give up the Dumbledore’s Army.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Cho Chang/Harry Potter</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>48</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Loved Ones and Leaving and New Beginnings</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Super+Carlin+Brothers">Super Carlin Brothers</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Disclaimer: The Harry Potter movies are owned by Warner Brothers.</p><p>This is the only story I’ve written that is in the Harry Potter Movie-Verse rather than the books. There are a lot of complaints that can be made about the movies, but the single biggest oversight in my opinion is that the Harry-Cho relationship in Order of the Phoenix is never resolved. In the movie, instead of Marietta betraying the D.A., Cho is dosed with Veritaserum by Umbridge. Harry learns this from Snape, but the movie ends with Cho still believing that Harry thinks she’s a traitor—maybe even believing herself that she’s a traitor. This is the scene that should have been included to fix that.</p><p>The scene in the opening paragraphs, seeing each other across the balcony, appears to have been in the original script in between Harry talking to Dumbledore and Harry talking to Luna, but it was cut from the film.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Harry descended the stairs from his Common Room again, wandering the castle aimlessly until it was time for the Leaving Feast. He’d been doing that a lot since Sirius’s death. He never seemed to know where to go or what to do with himself. He reached the Grand Staircase and looked down from the balcony. Filch was putting back up the last of the portraits that Umbridge had ordered taken down. (He still didn’t know what the point of that had been.)</p><p>Suddenly, he felt eyes on him. His head snapped up and scanned the stairs. There, on the balcony directly across from him, was Cho. She was staring at him expectantly—worriedly. Harry had no idea what to say. His emotions towards her were too complicated to make sense of them. He couldn’t help still feeling a flash of anger and disappointment at what she’d done, but mostly that was directed at Umbridge now, after what she’d done to <em>her</em>.</p><p>Cho didn’t seem to know what to say either. She gazed wistfully at Harry for a long moment, but then, even that expression faded. She turned away from him and started down the stairs.</p><hr/><p>Harry stood still, watching her go. She looked so sad—which was more or less how she’d looked all year, but it was different somehow. She looked so <em>alone</em>. Thinking back, he never saw her hanging out with the other Ravenclaw girls anymore. She’d been in bad enough shape grieving over Cedric when she had her friends to support her, but now, the D.A. had told everyone exactly what she’d done, and she didn’t have anyone.</p><p>Harry sighed and closed his eyes, leaning over the railing. He ground his teeth in frustration, but he couldn’t ignore this. He pushed himself up and raced down the stairs. The last thing he wanted to do right now was talk to Cho Chang, but he couldn’t let her go thinking he hated her for something that wasn’t her fault. He finally caught up with her in the Entrance Hall, just before she was going in to dinner.</p><p>“Cho, wait,” he called. He didn’t want to single her out, but he needed to get her attention.</p><p>She turned around. “Harry?” she said in surprise.</p><p>He hurried over to her. “I need to talk to you,” he said.</p><p>Immediately, tears sprang to the corners of her eyes. “Harry, I’m so sorry,” she said. “I couldn’t help myself. I didn’t know what to do—”</p><p>“I know,” Harry said.</p><p>“Umbridge said my mum—”</p><p>“Cho, it’s okay.”</p><p>She looked down at her feet, tears falling freely. “You must hate me,” she muttered.</p><p>Harry shook his head. “No…”</p><p>“But I—”</p><p>“Snape told me what really happened.”</p><p>Her head snapped up, her despair replaced with utter confusion. “What?”</p><p>Harry looked around at the lingering students going to dinner and led Cho over to an alcove at the side of the Entrance Hall where they wouldn’t be so conspicuous. “Snape told me last night the real reason you gave up the D.A.,” he said.</p><p>Cho looked at him like he was crazy. “Harry…what are you talking about? What does Snape have to do with this?”</p><p>“He’s the one who gave Umbridge the Veritaserum.”</p><p>She was still baffled. “What?”</p><p>Harry thought he must be looking just as confused back at her. Did she not <em>know?</em> “Last night, Umbridge was trying to interrogate me about…Anyway, she called Snape to bring her Veritaserum to question me, but he told her she’d used the last of it on <em>you</em>. That night when you told her about Dumbledore’s Army, she dosed you somehow.”</p><p>Cho started shaking, and the colour drained from her face. “The <em>tea</em>,” she whispered.</p><p>“Er…maybe?” he said.</p><p>“Umbridge called me into her office that day,” she said. “She gave me a cup of tea—said I looked tense. She was doing her awful, fake ‘I’m your friend’ routine. She sat me down and—” She choked on her words. “She started talking about my mum and her—her work at the Ministry, and…and I just told her everything, Harry!”</p><p>She broke down in sobs. He reached out a hand to her, mainly because she looked like she was about to fall over, and suddenly, she lunged forward and wrapped her arms around him, crying into his chest. Harry froze, eyes wide, completely at a loss. He’d seen Cho in some dark places this year, but never completely breaking down like this. He wished Hermione were here. She might take the mickey out of him later, but she’d be sympathetic in the moment. Slowly, he reached up with one hand and awkwardly patted her on the back.</p><p>“I didn’t know…” she whimpered. “I didn’t know.”</p><p>“It’s okay,” he said softly. “It’s okay, Cho.”</p><p>“I thought…” she said as she tried to collect herself. “I thought something felt off, but I didn’t know…I thought it was just because I knew I shouldn’t’ve…”</p><p>“You really didn’t know?”</p><p>“No!” She looked up at him. “I thought something was wrong with <em>me</em>. I didn’t think even Umbridge would do <em>that</em>.”</p><p>“But…Didn’t you know about the quills, though?”</p><p>“I didn’t find out about that until afterwards. None of the D.A. were talking to me…and I didn’t blame them. When I found out, I thought maybe she could’ve done something to me, but by then, it was all so blurry that I couldn’t tell if she had, or if it was just wishful thinking.”</p><p>It sounded awful, Harry thought—and uncomfortably familiar. These past two months must have been even worse for Cho than he’d thought. Almost subconsciously, he put his arms around her more comfortably. She was still trembling.</p><p>“After…after it happened,” she said, “I didn’t understand why I’d done it. I wanted to tell you—when we were in Dumbledore’s office, I mean—but I didn’t know what to say. I thought I’d failed. I thought I’d betrayed you—betrayed <em>all</em> of you. I didn’t think I’d ever do something like that. I told myself I was scared and trying to protect my mum, but it <em>still</em> didn’t make sense. And I’ve felt so awful about it ever since—”</p><p>“I’m sorry,” Harry said on impulse.</p><p>She shook her head again. “You couldn’t have known, Harry.”</p><p>“No, but I know what it’s like, not having anyone believe me. Being told I was crazy or Confunded or making things up.” Even the vision of Sirius, Hermione tried to tell him it was a trick, and all he could think about was how frustrated he was that no one believed him.</p><p>“Well, it sounds like everyone believes you now,” she said.</p><p>“Yeah…” he muttered. But at what cost? Looking back now, he felt like there were a million other ways to get the truth out about Voldemort that wouldn’t have cost Sirius his life. If he’d caught on that Snape was bluffing. (Although would he have believed that even if someone told him outright?) If he’d Flooed to London and tried to find some other member of the Order. Maybe even if he’d involved some other teacher and told them a partial story. But now, there was nothing he could do about any of it.</p><p>Eventually, her hug went on long enough that it started to feel awkward again. Harry really wasn’t prepared for this kind of thing. “Er, I just wanted to let you know it wasn’t your fault, Cho,” he said. “Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Neville, and Luna were there, too. We can…we can spread the word if you want.”</p><p>Cho responded by tightening her grip on his arms, but she soon relaxed and stood upright again, wringing her hands. “Maybe…” she said. “I still can’t believe Umbridge would do that. Veritaserum’s supposed to be tightly restricted.”</p><p>“I can,” Harry said. “She tried to <em>Crucio</em> me last night.”</p><p><em>“What?”</em> Cho’s eyes widened.</p><p>“I said Umbridge was questioning me. When I wouldn’t talk, and Snape didn’t have any truth potion, she was going to use the Cruciatus Curse instead.”</p><p>Cho gaped in horror. “What did she even want—” She caught herself. He’d sounded like he hadn’t wanted to talk about that. “Sorry.”</p><p>“No, it’s fine,” he conceded. “She wanted to know where Dumbledore was. I didn’t know even if I wanted to tell her. Anyway, she was gonna do it until Hermione made up a story to trick her into leaving the castle…Oh, and she said she’s the one who sent dementors after me last summer to try to get me expelled.”</p><p>“That’s horrible! She’d better be going to Azkaban for all that.”</p><p>“Well, I hope so,” he agreed, “but I think the Ministry has bigger fish to fry right now.”</p><p>Cho looked back towards the Great Hall. “Ugh, I think I’ve lost my appetite,” she said.</p><p>A flicker of confusion crossed Harry’s face, but he understood quickly. He’d be pretty uncomfortable if someone did that to him, too. “That’s alright,” he said. “I’m not very hungry either. Maybe we could…” He took a step and motioned vaguely up a side corridor.</p><p>Cho gave him a weak smile for the first time since before that last night in the D.A., and she walked beside him, not quite touching him. They were strolling slowly and still aimlessly, but Harry was feeling better than he was before. They walked in companionable silence for a couple of minutes before Cho spoke up again. “Thank you for telling me, Harry.”</p><p>“You needed to know.”</p><p>“It was still good of you to tell me. It sounds like you’ve been having a hard time of it, too.” He nodded absently. She paused and turned to him, biting her lip. “Harry…Do you think we could…maybe…start again?” she asked.</p><p>Harry froze, staring at her in surprise, but slowly, he smiled. “I’d like that, Cho,” he said. He took hold of her hands delicately as he leaned in and kissed her. It was as wet as the first time, but quite a bit more pleasant.</p><p>“Oh, hello,” a voice said. They jumped apart before they saw that it was Luna Lovegood coming around the corner. “Am I interrupting something?”</p>
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